The Sleepwalker’s Mansion Chapter 8

“Seo Taeoh’s orders cannot be defied by anyone.”

“…!”

“If you defy him, you’re finished.”

At Doha’s unexpected words, a crack formed in Doeon’s expression. With an agonizing pain as if his heart were about to shatter, Doeon barely managed to let out a finely broken breath. Doha’s face, looking at him, blurred faintly.

*

To think that Dad was making such plans.

He couldn’t even remember how he had returned to his room. After returning to his room, he tossed and turned in bed the whole time. Sleep would not come. All his plans to gain Dad’s trust and inherit the mansion without any trouble had come to nothing.

The facts Doha had told him were shocking.

That Dad had a fiancée, that he planned to bring him here to live together until the wedding, and that after the wedding ceremony, he intended to sell the mansion. And in the end, that he would send him far, far away.

A transparent film of tears quickly welled up in Doeon’s eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut. Taeoh’s gentle voice echoed in his ears.

‘Dad also wanted to be by Doeon’s side for countless days. For all the time that this flower bloomed and withered.’

“It was all a lie….”

Were all those affectionate words a lie? Doeon had no way to manage the helplessly surging sense of betrayal. Was that sweet voice just a momentary sweet-talking?

Should he not have contacted Dad in the first place? But thinking about it now, the news of his mother’s passing would have reached his ears one way or another. If he had been eyeing this mansion from the start, he would have been waiting for this opportunity.

All Doeon could do was clench his trembling hands into tight fists and endure the dawn alone, curled up like a ball under the blankets.

In his dream, he becomes a bird and flies in the sky. It is so very liberating. As he gradually descends, there is the familiar mansion. The white mansion, which feels like both a prison and an air-raid shelter. He folds his tired wings on the mansion’s roof and rests.

He exhales and looks around. But the surroundings have changed. The area gradually brightens as if a dim light has been turned on, and a bed is revealed before his eyes.

A bed…?

He repeatedly opened and closed his eyelids in the hazy vision. Then, within the gradually clearing sight, he sees a figure lying on the bed. Pitch-black hair, eyes deeply shadowed above, and features that look vaguely like a fierce feline.

Seo Doha…?

Startled, he took a step back. How did I end up in Doha’s room? Doeon looked behind him. The guest room door was open.

Did I open it and come in?

When…?

It was clear that his narcolepsy and sleepwalking had manifested due to extreme anxiety. He had fallen asleep without even realizing it, and then his body had moved on its own again. Doeon glanced at Doha’s face with an expression full of dismay.

Doha had his eyelids closed and was deep in a sweet sleep. He had to get out of the room immediately. Let’s leave quietly. It was when he turned his back and took one step. He failed to see Doha’s slippers on the floor, missed his step, and made a thud sound.

“Who is it.”

“…!”

It felt as though his entire body was freezing at the cool voice. Doeon stopped in his tracks as if he had become a stone statue. Soon, the question he had desperately hoped not to hear came from behind his back.

“Hyung?”

“…….”

“Doeon hyung?”

“…….”

“What are you doing there?”

“Ah….”

Doeon quickly composed his flustered expression. Pretending to be unfazed, he turned his head and arduously squeezed out a voice that would not come.

“…I heard a strange noise from y-your room, so I came to see….”

“A strange noise?”

Doha scratched his cheek with a sleepy face. Would he believe it? He had to believe it. Doeon backed away hesitantly and replied.

“Yeah… I guess it was the sound of the wind….”

“The sound of the wind from here can be heard all the way up to the second floor?”

“Y-yeah.”

Just then, the sound of the wind hitting the wooden window frame caught both of their ears. At the sound, which was similar to a scream, Doha slightly narrowed his eyes. Doeon opened his full lips as if to hurry him.

“Go back to sleep.”

Doha didn’t ask any more questions and buried his face in the pillow again, his expression still laced with sleep. Doeon let out a secret sigh. To think that these strange symptoms would manifest even after taking the medicine.

Should I go see Doctor Kang and get my prescription increased? The pale face closing the door was buried in the darkness.

Rumble, crash-!

The wind that had knocked on Doha’s window and passed by during the night must not have been an ordinary wind; lightning struck during the night, and a fierce storm began to rage. Doeon, who had slept poorly, let out a small yawn as he pushed folded newspaper into the gap under the door. Doha, who was watching what Doeon was doing with his arms crossed, shook his head.

“Do we really have to do this?”

“Yeah… Don’t forget to do it in the gaps of your room’s window too. Otherwise, the window could break.”

“This old mansion requires a lot of work. It sucks.”

“No more complaining, here.”

“What is it.”

“Block it, you too.”

When he handed some newspaper to Doha as well, he grumbled as he took the newspaper that was cut in half.

—As the 22nd typhoon, Karang, is rapidly moving north towards the Korean Peninsula, our country is expected to enter the typhoon’s sphere of influence in earnest starting from the morning of the 6th. This typhoon is the strongest in history with a central pressure reaching 930 hPa (hectopascals), and is forecasted to approach while temporarily maintaining ‘super strong’ status, requiring special preparedness.

News about the typhoon came from the TV. Doha, who had stopped for a moment to listen carefully to the weather forecast, slightly narrowed his eyes at the unusual report.

Just a moment ago, he had been making origami with the nonchalantly cut pieces of newspaper, but now he took the initiative to pick up the scissors.

“It says ‘super strong’.”

“I heard.”

Thanks to Doha deliberately emphasizing ‘super strong’, Doeon said while stuffing newspaper tightly into the window gaps.

“Still, we’ve never had to evacuate because the ground is high here.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

“Haaa….”

Doeon stopped stuffing newspaper and let out a sigh. His face was flushed red. Doha, who was looking questioningly at Doeon as he panted with shallow breaths, asked casually.

“Are you hot?”

“Huh? It’s a little hot.”

Doeon wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and straightened his bent back.

“I’m going to go get some water.”

The sudden spread of heat, when he had been perfectly fine until now, was a strange reaction even to Doeon. It was when he entered the kitchen and was pouring a cup of cold water from the recently installed water purifier.

Beep-beep-.

A small alarm went off on his wristwatch. It was the alarm to take his heat cycle suppressant. Doeon habitually fumbled in his pants pocket, then opened his mouth wide as if he had been struck on the head.

The medicine was not in his pocket.

The medicine… is gone.

Since when… has the medicine been gone?

Since when did I not pack the medicine?

Since when did the alarm not go off on time?

His dazed brain couldn’t conjure up a single thought. Think. Think! He grabbed his head and struck it with his fist.

Doeon traced back time in his mind. It seemed to have been since he came back home with Dad and Doha. He had taken his medicine on the first day, and after that….

Because of the obsession that he must not leave the house empty, the thought that he had run out of medicine hadn’t even occurred to him. The alarm also hadn’t gone off on time, so he hadn’t recognized the need to take his medicine. You crazy fool. Crazy fool! You absent-minded bastard! To think I had forgotten that!

“Hyung, what are you doing?”

“Uh, huh?”

Startled, Doeon turned around. Doha was standing there, having arrived at some point. Looking at Doeon standing blankly in the kitchen, Doha asked with a puzzled expression. Doeon stared at him, dazed.

“Hyung, I’ll have some water too.”

“Oh, oh. Sure.”

His hands trembled. The time it took to get a glass from the upper kitchen cabinet and fill it with a cup of water felt like an eternity. He handed the water to Doha, trying his best not to tremble. Doha, who took the glass, must have been quite thirsty as he brought the glass to his lips on the spot.

His prominent Adam’s apple bobbed. After emptying the glass in one go, he placed it in the sink and then wrinkled his nose.

“Hyung, do you wear perfume?”

“Huh? Why?”

His heart sank with a pang. Don’t tell me….

“Because you smell good, hyung.”

“I-I don’t wear any….”

“Really?”

“Yeah….”

Doha looked Doeon over from head to toe as if something was strange. His gray eyes shone clearly. His heart pounded violently. Doeon protested in a trembling voice.

“Ah, it’s probably the smell of fabric softener.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Yeah….”

Doha turned his head, seemingly not having seen Doeon’s trembling hands. Doeon secretly caught his breath and watched him cautiously.

“I-I’m going to go block my room’s window now.”

Now that Doha had smelled the pheromones, he had to get far away from him. It was the moment he was about to leave the kitchen and go up the second-floor stairs.

“Hyung.”

Doha called him from behind. Cold sweat trickled down his gaunt back as he stood frozen.

“Yeah?”

Unable to show his deathly pale face, he answered by turning slightly to the side, and Doha approached holding a pile of newspaper.

“You have to take this. To block the window.”

“Ah, thanks….”

Holding his breath, he took the newspaper that had been cut in half. Doha, who looked down at him with a puzzled expression as he puffed out his cheeks, narrowed his eyes and asked.